The invention relates to equipment of internal combustion engines of motor vehicles.
It relates in particular to an intake air cooler for a dual-stage turbocharged internal combustion engine, and to an intake air circuit comprising such a cooler.
To improve the performance of internal combustion engines, particularly at low speed, the use of two turbocharging stages respectively comprising a first compressor and a second compressor is known. The first compressor, or upstream compressor, compresses the intake air to low pressure, while the second compressor, or downstream compressor, compresses the intake air to high pressure. The two turbocharging stages may comprise a turbocharger associated with a mechanical or electric compressor, or two turbochargers having different sizes and compression ratios.
The intake air thereby compressed, also called turbocharging air, is heated by its compression and must be cooled using an appropriate heat exchanger, called turbocharging air cooler.
In the case of a dual-stage turbocharged internal combustion engine, the air heated by compression may be cooled by a single heat exchanger, or by two heat exchangers mounted at the outlet of each compressor, when the latter are mounted in series. This known architecture improves the efficiency and protects the drive impeller of the second compressor when the outlet temperature of the first compressor is too high.
The use of two heat exchangers not only incurs an additional cost, but also penalizes the aeraulics, particularly since the heat exchangers are generally mounted at the front of the vehicle.